Selena's POV
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They didn't introduce me to the people.
They unleashed me.
The forest whispered first. The trees bent toward me as I walked. The air itself shifted — recognizing what had been hidden for too long.
Me.
The girl who was lost.
The girl who bled red.
Now the Queen whose veins burned black.
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> "You must claim it," Ravyn said.
We stood at the edge of the Hollow Vale — a forgotten place where echoes ruled and no voice stayed whole.
There was no crowd.
No ceremony.
Only witnesses.
Those who remembered the last queen — the one who vanished in flame.
And those who watched me now — unsure if I was curse or crown.
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The Fallen Guardian stepped forward, unsheathing his broken blade.
> "You will not be announced. You will not be praised."
> "You will be tested."
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They led me into a stone labyrinth beneath the earth. It pulsed with old magic — not dead, just buried.
Carvings on the wall told stories I didn't know I was part of:
A kingdom devoured by darkness.
A vampire line that rebelled against fate.
A girl born from stardust and storm.
And at the center…
A throne carved into bone and obsidian.
No one had touched it in centuries.
Not because they feared it.
Because it feared her return.
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> "Selena," Zack whispered, catching up to me, "are you sure?"
> "No."
My voice didn't tremble.
"But I'm ready."
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The throne pulsed as I stepped forward.
It recognized me.
A thousand whispers filled the chamber, the voices of past queens, blood-bound sisters, and the ancestors who never rested.
> She has returned...
She has teeth...
She remembers...
She is the flame we buried...
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I sat.
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And the throne screamed.
Black lightning cracked across the cavern.
Flame erupted from the markings beneath my feet, and the chamber shook like it was being ripped back to life.
The old crown — broken, rusted — floated above me.
But I didn't reach for it.
It knelt to me.
It hovered just above my head, then dissolved into shadow and sank into my skin.
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> "You are crowned," said the Forest Witch.
"Not by tradition. Not by law."
"But by blood… and truth."
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Zack stepped toward me — hesitant.
> "Selena… what now?"
I didn't smile.
But I didn't break either.
> "Now," I said, rising from the throne, "we find out who stole the truth. And we burn them."
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🩸 Endnote
A Queen doesn't wait. She rises.
She's going to uncover what was taken from her people. But some truths were hidden for a reason…
To my Mystics, what would you do if the crown chose you? 🖤
— Mysterious_frnd